Accused
by Jae UK
Summary: Sydney Bristow has to stand up against something she cannot defeat - the law!
1. The Arrest

**The Arrest**

It was dark when Sydney Bristow was rudely awakened from her sleep. She'd been in the middle of a good dream but instead a man's hand was shaking her arm.

"Miss, wake up!" Automatically she went into spy mode and grabbed the hand, twisted it behind the man's back and pushed him to the floor so that she stood above him, pinning him down.

She looked around the room feeling momentarily disorientated from sleep. She was in what looked like a boat's cabin. There was a table in the middle of the room surrounded by four executive chairs. Sydney had been lying on a leather sofa that leaned against one side of the cabin. Suddenly everything came flooding back to her. The only thing that was unfamiliar was the amount of blood in the cabin and the boat's radio lying smashed to pieces on the floor. Before she could think about it though she was grabbed from behind by two pairs of strong hands who pinned her to the floor, pulled her hands behind her and put her in handcuffs.

"Hey! What are yo…" She cried. Her hair had fallen over her face and she couldn't see her attackers clearly.

"Sydney Bristow?" The guy she had pinned to the floor asked.

Sydney shook her head to get the hair out of her eyes and looked up at him but as her head was still to the floor she couldn't see him anyway. "Who wants to know?" She asked through gritted teeth.

A hand came down from someone to her left. In it was a police shield. "NYPD. Now, are you Sydney Bristow?"

"Yes." She replied.

"Then I am arresting you for the murder of Melissa Taylor."

_What has that woman done?_ She thought as she let the police officers pick her up off of the floor and led her to their own boat. _This doesn't look good._


	2. The Trial Part1

**The Trial Part1**

"The court is now in session. Will you please be upstanding for Judge Phillips?" The usher called out to the courtroom.

Judge Phillips entered and took his seat. "Be seated." He addressed the room and looked at his notes in front of him.

"We are here today to get a verdict on the Bristow case. Are there any more witnesses to be called by the bench?"

They both shook their heads. "No Your Honour."

"Then I call Sydney Bristow to the stand for your questions."

The judge nodded to the court usher.

Sydney was brought into the courtroom. She was wearing an orange all-in-one suit and her legs were chained together to prevent any escape. The US Marshall who brought her in unlocked the handcuff on her right wrist and relocked it on a steel bar to her left.

"Please put your hand on this bible, Ms Bristow," the Marshall asked. "Do you promise to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth?"

She looked around the room. The only person she recognised was her father. As this was a public case no one had shown up from work and her friends hadn't been informed, yet. So far she'd been lucky and the case had been kept out of the newspapers.

_If only I could tell the whole truth! I can't believe I have been forced to lie in a court of law, but if this is what it takes for my secret identity to be kept hidden then this is what I have to do._

Sydney swallowed. "I do."

"Sit down." He ordered.

"Ms Bristow," Judge Phillips began, "You stand here today accused of murdering Melissa Taylor. Do you have anything to say?"

_Only that I believe Melissa Taylor's dead as much as I believe in Santa Claus!_

"No Your Honour."

"Mr Banks," the Judge looked at the lawyer on the in front of him, "your defendant."

Mark Banks stood up, straightening his tie and cleared his throat. "Ms Bristow, we have previously heard accounts from your boss at Credit Dauphine, Arvin Sloane, your father, Jack Bristow and Melissa Taylor's partner, Gregory Brown but we have not yet heard, in your own words, the events of the night of the 5th of October 2004.

"According to Mr Sloane you were on The Kindness for business…" He led intending for Sydney to carry on.

Sydney cleared her throat and lent forward to speak into the microphone in front of her. "Yes, Melissa Taylor was hopefully going to be a big business deal for Credit Dauphine." She lied. "Mr Sloane asked me to go on the boat trip with Melissa and two of her bodyguards…"


	3. The Mission Part1

**The Mission Part1**

Sydney zipped up her wetsuit, pulled the diving goggles over her eyes and dove into the cold water. Taking a mini propeller out of her diving bag and switching it on she jetted through the water to a boat two miles out. She switched the propeller off and surfaced discreetly next to the boat. She double-checked that this was the right boat, The Kindness, and slowly moved around to a ladder hanging on one side being careful not to make any loud noises. She started climbing the ladder and paused below a porthole about halfway up the boat. Hooking her arm on the ladder she balanced herself while she removed her diving gear, put it all in the bag, along with the propeller and tied it to the ladder.

Still holding onto a rung Sydney unzipped her wetsuit and slid out of it revealing an outfit similar to what the guards onboard the boat were wearing; black combats and a tight black top. The only difference was that the guards Sydney and her partner Marcus Dixon had observe earlier were all male. Also she was wearing a leather necklace, which hid a detachable microphone and was her only contact with SD6.

Unfortunately she hadn't had any room to conceal much in the way of weaponry. All she had in the off chance she was made was a small knife. She made sure that it was still strapped to her boot, hooked her wet suit over a rung and pulled out what looked like a pair of binoculars from one of the pockets in her combats. She unscrewed a bolt from the hinge and took out the small remote camera that was hidden in there. Flicking up a panel from the side of the binoculars she made sure the equipment was working. A green light appeared on a small screen through which she could make out an image of herself. _Dammit!_ she thought, _there's no sound!_

Sydney climbed up the ladder until she was level with the porthole making sure that if there was anyone in that room they would be unable to see her. She slowly moved the camera towards the porthole window knowing that if she made any sudden movement then she would be spotted. Taking a small piece of the gum from her mouth she stuck the camera discreetly on the window and checked the panel on the binoculars. _Still no audio!_ Inspecting the small screen closely she noted that there were two people in this room, a woman and a man. From another pocket of her combats she took out a tiny earpiece turned it on and inserted it in her ear.

"Dixon, do you read me?" Dixon was back onshore monitoring the operation.

"Yes Sydney, I've got the video feed do you have audio?"

"No, the glass is too thick. I'm going to get closer."

"Sydney, it's too dangerous this is supposed to be a fact finding mission only!"

"I'll be fine Dixon. Can you tell how many people are onboard?"

"Heat sensors tell me there's four. There's the two we can see on the video. A guard patrolling the deck and another driving the boat."

"Thanks Dixon."

"Be careful Syd."

"I will. Going radio silent." She heard a click as she flicked the switch on the transmitter.

Turning the left viewfinder of the binoculars she listened for a faint click.

"Base ops, this is Mermaid. Do you read me?" Sydney whispered quietly.

She was about to repeat herself when she heard faint static through the earpiece. Suddenly Michael Vaughn's voice came through loud and clear almost making her jump.

"Mermaid, this is base ops. Don't worry but there will be a slight delay of about 5 seconds as the equipment we're using is so small. Do you have visual on the suspects?"

"Yeah, sending it now." Sydney said as she turned the other viewfinder.

"Got it." He replied seconds later.

"The woman's Melissa Taylor. Do you recognise the man?" She asked.

"We're running his picture through the system now, should take a couple of minutes."

"OK. I can't get any sound so I'm heading onboard."

This time the delay wasn't because of the satellite. She knew he wasn't happy.

"Be careful Mermaid." He said eventually.


	4. The Mission Part2

**The Mission Part2**

On the deck Sydney stood over the patrolling guard she had just taken out after sneaking up on him from behind and threw him overboard. Then she attacked the driver with a blow to his head, knocking him out before he'd even realised she was there.

Carefully she went below the deck. Slowly making her way through the small corridor she came to the room with Melissa Taylor and the unknown man. As the door was open she couldn't get too close. She had to get nearer.

Going back on deck she removed the concealed microphone necklace from around her neck and switched on her CIA radio.

"Base Ops do you copy?"

"Mermaid, we copy loud and clear. Get out of there now Mermaid, that's an order. The person talking to Melissa is Olivier Gerard. Get out now!" Vaughn sounded panicked.

"I'm nearly done Base Ops. I'll be five minutes tops." Sydney replied calmly.

"No Sy…Mermaid, you have to leave now. It's too dangerous; Olivier Gerard is head of the Russian NRK. Leave now!"

"I'll be out in less than five minutes. Just tell me this, is it possible for you to intercept my SD6 communication?"

"Yes, we have the frequency here. What are you planning?"

"I don't have much time, just intercept the feed and I'll talk to you soon."

"OK, but I can't…" Before he could say anymore she turned the radio off and instantly turned on her SD6 radio.

"Dixon, do you copy?"

"I'm here Sydney. Before you say anything I have to let you know I am entirely against this whole mission."

"I know Dixon but I won't be much longer. I'm going to remove the microphone from my necklace and get it into that room so you will have audio. I'll be able to hear you but you won't hear me."

"Syd, I know I've said this before but be careful."

"I will." With that she palmed the microphone and edged towards Melissa Taylor and Olivier Gerard.

Standing outside the door Sydney squatted with her back against the wall and slid the microphone across the floor where it came to a stop just behind Gerard. _Good, they should be able to hear clearly from there._

As she stood up and turned to leave the boat's driver came up behind her and dealt her a perfectly aimed blow to her head, knocking her unconscious instantly.

Everything that happened next was a blur.

"…a knife, take it." She heard Melissa say and felt a tug on her ankle. "Use it on the bags of…" Sydney drifted out again.

Waking up again she heard a man's voice, "…start the boat Tom. We're nearly finished here. Look she's awake." She felt liquid being poured into her mouth and was forced to swallow. _Whisky?_ She thought weakly before drifting into unconsciousness again.


End file.
